Waterproof Digital Cameras

Underwater Cameras: Which one?

If you’ll recall last summer, I dropped my last water-proof digital camera over the side while taking sub-surface shots of mackinaw.

For a year or so prior, I had been using a Olympus Stylus 720 SW as my waterproof rig. It took pretty decent sub-surface shots (like the one of the brown trout above) and it had its moments — good and bad — above water as well.

Overall…

I was happy with it until it became a piece of bottom structure in 125 feet of water at Lake Tahoe. In that clear water, I could see it’s shiny chrome body flashing for about 50 feet. Looked so good that I wouldn’t be surprised if a mackinaw ate it!

Anyway, the 7.1 megapixel 720 SW had some cool features — it was tough (shockproof to 5 feet) and waterproof down to 10 feet. It was sexy and ultra compact and captured pretty good underwater sound with its video feature. However, it lacked much manual control, which I wasn’t too keen about.

Some of the scenery modes would automatically switch the image quality settings from the highest to lower, which was L-A-M-E and the LCD was too dim for daylight viewing. It also kinda needed to be either a dedicated underwater camera or strictly an above the surface unit as the lens would get water droplets on it when I went from wet to dry — spots that would mess up a good above water shot every time.

The new model
So, after that little episode, I switched to a Pentax Optio W30, another 7-megapixel waterproof model.

It’s got about the same depth range, more ISO settings and, overall, the photos above water have been coming out better than those from the Olympus. Here’s an example…

Under the surface, both cameras have about the same image quality. The biggest trick is getting your subject completely in the shot when you’re not actually in the water looking through the viewfinder.

I’d like a little more manual control, but the W30 has enough scene modes built it to cover most of the bases. It’s got a lens treatment that supposedly gets rid of the water droplet problems I encountered with the 720 SW, but it didn’t really last long. After taking an underwater shot and then going above the surface, I still have to use a cloth to clean the lens.

Unfortunately, the Pentax doesn’t float either, so I rigged up a float to keep me from revisiting the Tahoe situation.

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the Optio W30 and for any camera to last a year under the brutal conditions I put it through, that’s saying something!

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